Many countries around the world lack data on the epidemiology of agency response to child maltreatment. However, it has proven difficult to commit child protection agencies to participation in incidence studies. This article presents Optimus’ Study innovative approach of utilizing individual agencies’ standardized data. Potential investigators of future similar studies might benefit from the lessons learned of the presented project.

There are a limited number of epidemiological studies that have focused on trauma exposure and prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in representative general population samples of adolescents, especially outside of the United States. The study therefore aimed to assess the lifetime prevalence of traumatic events (TEs) and current prevalence of PTSD, and to examine demographic risk factors for TEs and PTSD in a representative sample of adolescents.

Although child sexual abuse (CSA) is considered to be a significant health risk, there is no systematic overview of studies that have investigated the prevalence of CSA in Switzerland. A literature search was conducted using several online bibliographic databases. In addition, experts in the field in Switzerland were contacted to find studies that had not been published in academic journals.